Finance Minister Ishaq Dar unveiled many of the tenets of Pakistan’s fiscal year 2013-2014 budget on Wednesday. The Rs 3.5 trillion ($36 billion) budget aims for a 4.4 percent growth rate this fiscal year, and aims to reduce the Rs 500 billion ($5.1 billion) amount of circular debt in the energy sector. Furthermore, Dar plans to reduce non-development government spending by 30 percent and to reduce the budget deficit by 2.5 percent from 8.8 to 6.3 percent. On Wednesday evening, Prime Minister Nawaz Sharif will complete the finishing touches on the budget, before it is revealed in its entirety.[1]

In related news, on Tuesday, in his 2012-2013 Economic Survey of Pakistan, Finance Minister Ishaq Dar refused to place a definite number on Pakistani government funds spent fighting terrorism within the nation. Dar was initially told that losses were likely between $80 and $100 billion; however, upon receiving reports in the $125 billion range, Dar claimed the numbers calculated by the ministry of finance were “unrealistic,” and elected to exclude them from the report. Reportedly, U.S. embassy officials had also asked Dar to refrain from publishing a chapter on the War on Terror in his survey.[2]

In the lead-up to an assault on the Tehrik-e-Taliban Pakistan's (TTP) strongholds in Mohmand agency and Kunar, Afghanistan, allegedly being planned by rival militant groups, including Lashkar-e-Taiba and Ansarul Islam, TTP commander Abu Muadh al Kohati on Tuesday appealed to the Afghan Taliban to act against the militant groups—who have been acting under the name of the Afghan Taliban—and re-affirmed his support for the Afghan Taliban, pledging fealty to its chief, Mullah Omar, and stating the TTP’s intention to abide by, and carry out, any orders by Omar. [9]